What were the deportation annually rates for each presiden by year
Executive summary
A complete, year-by-year breakdown of deportation “rates” aligned precisely to each president’s calendar year is not available in the materials provided; however, published analyses and government yearbooks allow two complementary ways to answer the question: removals/returns counts by fiscal year (DHS Yearbook) and average annual removals expressed as a share of the estimated unauthorized population by presidential administration (Cato) — both approaches show substantial variation driven by definitions (removal vs return), border versus interior actions, and fiscal-year timing [1] [2].
1. What the best-available presidential averages show
A widely cited normalization — removals as a percentage of the estimated unauthorized population averaged across administrations — finds George H.W. Bush at about 0.91% per year, Bill Clinton about 1.86% per year, George W. Bush about 2.42% per year, Barack Obama about 3.33% per year, and Donald Trump about 2.59% per year through 2018, according to Cato’s historical-perspective analysis [2].
2. High‑level annual counts and notable peak years
Government and investigative reporting highlight several headline annual counts: the Obama administration recorded a peak year of roughly 400,000 removals in fiscal year 2013, a number frequently invoked in debates about the “Deporter in Chief” label [3] [4]; the Biden-era fiscal year 2024 saw more than 271,000 deportations and returns, with about 82% involving people apprehended at the border [5]; and analyses of interior removals show Obama’s first term averaged over 200,000 interior removals per year whereas Trump’s interior removals averaged about 80,000 annually [6].
3. Why simple year‑by‑year comparisons mislead: definitions, fiscal years and voluntary returns
Different sources count different actions: DHS yearbooks separate removals (compulsory, based on a removal order) from returns and voluntary repatriations, and these categories are reported on a fiscal‑year basis rather than calendar years tied to presidential inaugurations, which complicates direct president-by-year alignments [1] [7]. Independent and press accounts underscore that much of the recent rise in repatriations under Biden were voluntary or border returns rather than interior removal orders, a distinction that matters for “rate” comparisons and for whether someone is barred from reentry [8] [7].
4. Contrasting interpretations and institutional agendas
Analysts and outlets frame the same raw data differently: Cato’s percent-of-population framing emphasizes cross‑administration comparability but depends on estimates of the unauthorized population [2]; Migration Policy Institute and BBC reporting focus on recent fiscal‑year volumes and the composition of those returns (border vs interior) to argue that Biden’s administration has been as active as Trump’s in sheer numbers but with a different mix of enforcement actions [7] [5]. Advocacy and watchdog groups further highlight how local jail cooperation and policy design shape arrests and downstream removals, underscoring that presidential rhetoric does not map neatly to enforcement outcomes [9].
5. How to get the explicit year‑by‑year presidential rates missing from this briefing
The DHS Yearbook Table 39 provides the raw annual counts of removals and returns by fiscal year back through 2019 and is the authoritative source to convert counts into annual “rates” given an estimate of the unauthorized population; pairing that table with more recent ICE/DHS fiscal‑year reports (FY 2020–2024) would produce the exact year‑by‑year numbers that align most closely with public reporting standards [1] [5]. The sources provided here offer reliable summary metrics (Cato averages, peak-year counts, interior/removal splits) but not a single, complete calendar‑year-by-president rate table; constructing that requires merging DHS yearbook data with population estimates year‑by‑year [2] [1].